Road to Perdition(2002)

R
Rated R for violence and language
1h 57m

Release Date: Jul 12, 2002 | Wide

82%
86%
B+
7.7

A mob enforcer's son in 1930s Illinois witnesses a murder, forcing him and his father to take to the road, and his father down a path of redemption and revenge.

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Director & Top Cast

Sam Mendes
Director

Tom Hanks
Michael Sullivan

Tyler Hoechlin
Michael Sullivan Jr.

Paul Newman
John Rooney

Rob Maxey
Drugstore Owner

Liam Aiken
Peter Sullivan

Jennifer Jason Leigh

Annie Sullivan

Daniel Craig

Connor Rooney

Ciarán Hinds

Finn McGovern

Craig Spidle

Rooney's Henchman

Ian Barford

Rooney's Henchman

Stephen P. Dunn

Finn McGovern's Henchman

Paul Turner

Finn McGovern's Henchman

Kathleen Keane

Irish Musician

Brendan McKinney

Irish Musician

Jackie Moran

Irish Musician

Kieran O’Hare

Irish Musician

John M. Williams

Irish Musician

Technical Specifications

Sound Mix: DTS,Dolby Digital,SDDS

Aspect Ratio: 2.35 : 1

Other Details

Country of Origin: United States

Language: English

Summaries

Plot Summary

Michael Sullivan, Sr. (Tom Hanks) is an enforcer for Rock Island Irish mob boss John Rooney (Paul Newman), during the Great Depression. Rooney raised the orphan Sullivan and loves him more than his own biological son, the unstable Connor (Daniel Craig).Connor snaps and kills disgruntled associate Finn McGovern when meeting him with Sullivan, resulting in Sullivan gunning down McGovern's men. Sullivan's twelve-year-old son Michael Sullivan, Jr. (Tyler Hoechlin) had hidden in his father's car and witnesses the event.Despite Sullivan swearing his son's secrecy and Rooney demanding Connor's apology for the reckless action, the nervous Connor suspects witnesses and acts. He murders Sullivan's wife Annie and younger son Peter, mistaking him for young Michael, while sending Sullivan to his death at a speakeasy. However, Sullivan escapes to Chicago with his son to seek Al Capone, for work and for Connor's location, who is in hiding.Sullivan is rejected when asking Capone associate Frank Nitti (Stanley Tucci) and Rooney is aware of the meeting. He reluctantly allows Nitti to dispatch crime scene photographer and assassin Harlen Maguire (Jude Law), who likes to photograph his victims, to kill Sullivan.Maguire tracks him and Michael to a roadside diner but fails to kill Sullivan, who realizes and cripples Maguire's car wheel before escaping. In response Sullivan begins robbing banks that hold Capone and Rooney's laundered money, hoping to trade it for Connor, while teaching Michael to drive as the getaway. He is impeded when the account money is withdrawn by the mob and visits Rooney's accountant Alexander Rance at his hotel for information. However, he is set up when Rance stalls him until Maguire enters, but Michael warns his father with the car horn and Rance is killed in the ensuing crossfire. Maguire is injured when a bullet shatters glass on his face and Sullivan escapes with ledgers, but as he flees Maguire shoots him in the arm.Michael drives his father to a farm where a childless elderly couple helps Sullivan to recover. Sullivan bonds with his son and discovers from the ledgers that Connor has been embezzling from his father for years, using the names of dead gang members. As the Sullivans depart, they gift the couple much of the stolen money. Sullivan then confronts Rooney with the information while he attends Mass. While Rooney already knew about the embezzlement and that it must end with Connor's death, he refuses to be the one to give up his son.One night, cloaked by darkness and rain, Sullivan dispatches Rooney's entire entourage with his Thompson sub-machine gun and walks up to Rooney himself. Rooney mutters he is glad it is Sullivan while an emotional Sullivan pulls the trigger, killing him. Seeing no further reason to protect Connor, Nitti reveals his location to Sullivan, making him promise that this will end. Sullivan goes to the hotel where Connor is hiding and kills him.Sullivan then drives Michael to stay at his Aunt Sara's beach house in Perdition, a town on the shore of Lake Michigan. However, he is ambushed and shot by a disfigured Maguire. As Maguire prepares to photograph the dying Sullivan, Michael appears and points a gun but cannot bring himself to fire. Sullivan then draws a gun and kills Maguire, before dying in his son's arms. Mourning his father's death, Michael finds his way back to the elderly farm couple to live with them. He states growing up that his father's only fear was his son would be like him and that if asked whether Sullivan was a good man, he would simply reply he was his father.

Storyline

1931. Mike Sullivan and Connor Rooney are two henchmen of elderly downstate IL-based Irish-American mobster John Rooney, Connor's father. In many respects, John treats Mike more as his son, who he raised as his own after Mike was orphaned, than the volatile Connor, who nonetheless sees himself as the heir apparent to the family business. One evening, Mike's eldest son, twelve year old Michael Sullivan Jr., who has no idea what his father does for a living, witnesses Connor and his father gun down an associate and his men, the situation gone wrong initiated from an action by Connor. Caught witnessing the incident, Michael is sworn to secrecy about what he saw. Regardless, Connor, not wanting any loose ends, makes an attempt to kill Mike, his wife and their two sons. Mike and the surviving members of his family know that they need to go on the run as Connor, who has gone into hiding, will be protected through mob loyalty, especially by John, who cannot turn on his own flesh and blood. Still, Mike has to figure out a way for retribution for what Connor did, while still protecting him and his family, not only from Connor, but from John and his fellow associates. Through it all, Mike wants those in his family that had no say in what he chose as a living, to have some redemption for their eternal souls. — Huggo It is the year 1931. Mike Sullivan is a henchman of southern Illinois crime boss John Rooney. Having taken Sullivan under his wing as as orphan, Rooney's paternal affections for him are greater than for his son and heir, Connor Rooney, who is a violent and dangerous man. Sullivan's eldest son Michael, who is curious about his mysterious father, inadvertently witnesses a mob hit that is carried out by his father and Connor. Michael is caught and sworn to secrecy but Connor views him as a loose end. This puts Sullivan at odds with Rooney who is forced to side with his son, making Sullivan an enemy of the mob. Sullivan then takes action to protect his family and to put an end to the threat. — JFairweather Mike Sullivan works as a hit man for crime boss John Rooney. Sullivan views Rooney as a father figure. However after his son is witness to a killing he has done Mike Sullivan finds himself on the run trying to save the life of his son and at the same time looking for revenge on those who wronged him. Jude Law co stars as a hit man hired to kill Sullivan. — EL TORO 79